Under the influence of The Beatles, the Group Sounds movement swept Japan in the mid-1960s. This compilation -- out of print for well over 20 years -- collects some of the finest cuts made by several of the leading bands of the time, and makes its long-awaited CD debut here, together with background notes. Includes artists such as The Golden Cups, The Beavers, The Mops, The Spiders, The Carnabeats, D'swooners, and The Jaguars.

Under the influence of The Beatles, the Group Sounds movement swept Japan in the mid-1960s. This compilation -- out of print for well over 20 years -- collects some of the finest cuts made by several of the leading bands of the time, and makes its long-awaited CD debut here, together with background notes. Artists include: Outcast, The Spiders, The Mops, The Savage, The Jaguars, The Sharp Hawks, The Sharp Five, The Voltage, and The Golden Cups.

Various live tracks assembled circa 1973-1987. As news of the new rock music made it to Japan from the UK and the USA, mostly via rock magazines and music papers, with most LPs tough to find even on import, something was lost in translation that allowed it to mutate well beyond its original remit. Les Rallizes Dénudés took rock music at its word while visioning it as both unnecessarily complicated and too stupid by far. In doing so they formulated an inspirational blueprint that would go on to have a marked effect on everything that came after them in Japanese underground music. It's a music that's as loose as it is uptight, as sophisticated as it is punk-primitive, as radical as it is simplistic. As the old ESP-Disk banner used to promise, truly, you never heard such sounds. Digitally remastered. Includes an 8-page booklet in English and Japanese.

Finally available on CD, this pioneering compilation gathers a dozen of the best bands in the "Group Sounds" movement that swept Japan in the 1960s. Featuring plenty of frantic songs with wild guitar and intense vocals, it's proof that rock and roll was truly an international language, and includes early material by musicians who went on to perform with legendary bands such as the Flower Travellin' Band, Speed, Glue & Shinki, Les Rallizes Denudes, and Foodbrain. It's presented here complete with a full-color booklet and detailed background notes. Artists: The Golden Cups, The Dynamites, Outcast, The Carnabeats, The Tempters, The Beavers, The Bunnys, The Mops, The Spiders, D'swooners, Zoo Nee Voo, and Fingers.

Under the influence of The Beatles, the "Group Sounds" movement swept Japan in the mid-1960s. This esteemed compilation -- out of print for over two decades -- gathers a dozen of the wildest tracks in the genre, spanning surf-rock, fuzzed-up R&B and even psychedelia. It's presented here complete with a full-color booklet offering background notes on each artist, and is sure to thrill fans of the further reaches of garage rock. Artists: The Beavers, The Carnabeats, The Spiders, The Voltage, The Mops, D'swooners, The Bunnys, The Golden Cups and The Savage.

Reissue of this Japanese early '70s performance group. The group's name is literally the icons for a "circle," "triangle" and "square," with "Maru Sankaku Shikaku" substituting as a translation for those images. Circle Triangle Square were a painted bunch of commune rockers and percussion tribe second to none, whose random bells, flute and remedial tea-tray flailings were still more like the Godz or Nihilist Spasm Band than the deep theta-space obliterations of Taj Mahal Travellers. Led by future Murahatchibu drummer Sahuro "Kant" Watanabe, CTS were part of an elite bunch of Shinjuku Futen bands who actually made it onto record. Digitally remastered. Includes a 16-page booklet with notes by band leader Sahuro "Kant" Watanabe. Contains the original LP artwork.

LP version. Takehisa Kosugi was a hippie who become an avant-garde composer. Born in Tokyo in 1938, he graduated in 1962 at the Tokyo University of Arts, and then founded the Japanese equivalent of the Fluxus movement, called Group Ongaku, a group devoted to improvisation and multi-media performances. In 1969 he formed the Taj Mahal Travellers, a psychedelic rock group that played lengthy improvised jams that can be summarized in three principles: a far Eastern approach to music as a living organism, an intense electronic processing of instruments and voices, and a semi-mathematical overlapping of frequencies. Basically: La Monte Young on acid. Kosugi mainly played violin. He was on the road with this group between 1971 and 1972, traveling in a Volkswagen minibus from Holland to the Taj Mahal itself. Two albums were made out of that experience: one of them this release, July 15, 1972. This is the first 180 gram vinyl release. Includes an English translation of the original Japanese LP insert. Digitally remastered.

Originally released on Vertigo in April 1972, this is the first album by Miki Curtis (Samurai front man) following the break-up of the band. It's a fantastically otherworldly psychedelic release and a totally different sound than Samurai. The First Ear finds Eastern-tinged psych of the highest echelon. Strange harmony vocals, a spacey guitar solo, queerly sawing synths, everything's efficient and even compelling. "Forty days on a stoned-out camel," moans Miki (yes, he knows some English, too) and that is just how this sounds. The track ends with half a minute of noisy slurping on what we presume to be a waterpipe. Mind-blowing. Digitally remastered. Comes with an English translation of the original Japanese LP insert.

Takehisa Kosugi was a hippie who become an avant-garde composer. Born in Tokyo in 1938, he graduated in 1962 at the Tokyo University of Arts, and then founded the Japanese equivalent of the Fluxus movement, called Group Ongaku, a group devoted to improvisation and multi-media performances. In 1969 he formed the Taj Mahal Travellers, a psychedelic rock group that played lengthy improvised jams that can be summarized in three principles: a far Eastern approach to music as a living organism, an intense electronic processing of instruments and voices, and a semi-mathematical overlapping of frequencies. Basically: La Monte Young on acid. Kosugi mainly played violin. He was on the road with this group between 1971 and 1972, traveling in a Volkswagen minibus from Holland to the Taj Mahal itself. Two albums were made out of that experience: one of them this release, July 15, 1972. Unavailable on CD for a considerable time, this important album now enjoys a timely reissue on Bamboo. Includes an English translation of the original Japanese LP insert. Digitally remastered.

Truly a Japanese psychedelic female acid-folk masterpiece. Released on July 25th, 1976, Mikkô was Sai Yoshiko's second album, a wonderful acid-folk album on which she gets assisted by a string of big name musicians such as Kuni Kawauchi (of the Happenings Four, amongst others) to arrange the songs. Mikkô features Sai's original songs, making it her first real complete album. At times the disc draws in Middle Eastern influences (sitar and tabla), but once she gets to singing, the listener is lulled into her own private, mysterious sonic world, through which one gets sucked in by her wide-ranging vocalizations. At the time of this recording, Sai Yoshiko was merely 23 years-old. Totally obscure, much in-demand by Japanese psych heads, and rather hard to track down. One of Sai Yoshiko's biggest fans is Jojo Hiroshige from Hijokaidan and Alchemy Records, who eventually, 25 years after she recorded this stunning album, dove in the studio with her for the Crimson Voyage CD on which she merely attributed some sighs and moans. This album is really a stunner and a must for people into some more advanced Japanese underground historical recordings. Includes the English translation of the original Japanese LP insert. Digitally-remastered.